


Flowers

by goddamnitaisha



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/M, First Meetings, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 01:12:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2488952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddamnitaisha/pseuds/goddamnitaisha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Summary is worse than the fanfic) (Yet another take on the 'Aerith sells Sephiroth a flower' scene.): Why did I write this thing - nobody wants to buy your stupid flowers Aerith get lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flowers

\- "Sir, a flower for a gil?"

The man waved Aerith away. People brushed by her. The young woman did not need much more, but she needed a _little_ more gil. 

\- "Sir, a flower for a gil?"

- "Go away." 

The girl pressed her fist against her lips, and looked around. The next man who approached was taller than any other man she'd ever seen. He had silver hair and the face -

She took a step forward. "Sir, a flower - ?"

He slowed down, as if not to run her over, and put his elbow against her shoulder to brush past her: "I don't need your flowers."

She fell in step beside him. "You could make someone happy with it." 

He looked down at her from the corner of his green eyes. She could see her own reflection. His eyelashes were long. Something, a glint of annoyance in his gaze commanded her to stop walking. Her feet halted. She stopped, struck in awe.

He walked one step further, then turned to her. "Flowers are for the purpose of giving away. I do not have one to give it to as an apology," he said. "I make no mistakes."

- "Don't you have a girlfriend?"

- "No."

- "A boyfriend?"

- "No."

- "You could give it to your mother?"

The man turned his head away. When his head had turned, his body slowly followed.

"Wait," she said. She grabbed the crossed suspenders on his chest with one hand. With the other she took a flower, and stuck it in-between. A droplet of water rolled from the stem, over his taut muscles. 

He looked down on her.

She looked up. "You looked like _you_ needed one."

He raised his hand. His thumb and forefinger pinched carefully around the stem as if not to break it. He plucked it from his clothes. "I don't need the cut-off genitals of a plant to decorate me. They will not improve my mood," he said. He turned the yellow flower between his fingers and looked at it. For a moment the world seemed to cease, and it was just him, and the flower with it's glowing yellow petals like his eyes glowed green.

He smelled it. His eyebrows knitted and his mouth opened to a line. He made a face. "Yuch." He held it out to her. "Take it."

Aerith felt her cheeks heat up. "I-..eh!"

He stared down at her. 

She stared back. People moved behind this tall man, but the shopping crowd was reduced to a colourless daze. She could only stare at the face behind the flower.

He glanced away, then back at her. His outstretched hand lost it's power. His angry eyebrows turned up a little, like a child wondering if he'd done anything wrong. 

She'd never gotten a flower before. They were always for other women.

She put her hands on his fist and pushed the fist and flower back to his chest. "You take it!"

"Thank you," he said. "How much-"

"No, you needed it," she said. "It's in exchage for a smile."

"A smile is no currency." He dipped one hand into his pocket.

"I want a  _smile,"_ she said.

He looked at her. His eyebrows were still in a competing frown but his lips trembled upwards. It was the funniest face.

Aerith put a hand over her mouth. "Pfff-!"

\- "What?"

She giggled behind her fist. "That's not a smile, silly." She folded her hands behind her and the flower basket bounced against her legs. She leaned forward, and beamed at him. " _This_ is a smile."

"Ooh," he purred. Such a self-satisfied smile appeared on his gorgeous face that it made her wonder if he had made her laugh on purpose. There were a thousands glittering lights in his eyes. He blinked slowly. "I shall take it home then."

_The smile or the flower,_ she thought.

It was both.

After a silent _thank you_ , in which his lips moved but he didn't speak the words, he turned. He was like a big animal that first looked over his shoulder before he turned, as if not to knock the smaller people over. He walked away while turning the flower between his fingers.

She looked after him for as long as she could, until the crowd swallowed him. Then he was gone. 

Aerith sighed. She smiled.

She turned on one heel, focusing on the next person in the crowd with her body, but her mind was playing the stranger's purring smile. The glitter in his green eyes was stuck on repeat.

"A flower for a gil!"


End file.
